brotherbill
spending too much on rocks
Member since October 2018
Posts: 388
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Post by brotherbill on Feb 9, 2023 14:43:55 GMT -5
I am a recent (year or so) convertee to metal or non transparent templates. After a poll on this site indicated many members preferred non transparent templates, I decide to give them a try. They work better for my brain! That said, I cut the shapes out with a coping saw which is much more accurate than I could ever manage with an exacto knife. Afterwards I polish with the Foredom. It is not fast but it makes a nice job.
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Brian
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since July 2020
Posts: 1,512
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Post by Brian on Feb 9, 2023 15:46:06 GMT -5
I am itching to get a 3D printer. I wonder if one of those would work for templates? One of my favorite templates I use was custom made by someone that made the drawing and had it laser cut from a sheet of really hard plastic. It is now broke in a few spots and not replaceable. Chuck I just got a 3D printer in December and it has been a lot of fun already. I think it would be an excellent tool to use to make templates. You could make them as thick or thin as you’d like and the thing is incredibly accurate at creating shapes. One of the patterns to calibrate the printer is a simple single layer that prints a sheet that feels like a sheet of paper. With translucent filament, you should be able to print something that you can sort of see through as long as you don’t want it too thick. |
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Post by susand24224 on Feb 9, 2023 16:29:36 GMT -5
Old milk cartons (or similar) and an exacto knife. I'm in the camp that doesn't completely use templates--but I use them to focus in on the basic design that I want and to filter out the "noise" from the rest of the slab. So I want my template portion clear and the surrounds sufficiently opaque to block out the pattern I'm not focusing on. After I get the basic pattern I want with the template, I free hand changes to incorporate or discorporate (my new word for the day) portions.
I have some milar sheets around somewhere which worked okay but didn't like the extreme temperatures that my shop creates in dead summer and dead winter. The milk carton solution was perfect for me. And free.
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Post by oregon on Feb 9, 2023 16:43:46 GMT -5
I am itching to get a 3D printer. I wonder if one of those would work for templates? One of my favorite templates I use was custom made by someone that made the drawing and had it laser cut from a sheet of really hard plastic. It is now broke in a few spots and not replaceable. Chuck yeah, if you know how to do Bezier curves, organic shapes are pretty easy. I wrote a bit of code back when ago to squish/squash a basic shape... Some of the basic files still are here if you want to walk into the library and ask them to print one to test out. (easy for them to scale things in independent x/y/z if you wanted to squish more.
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Post by rockjunquie on Feb 9, 2023 17:03:11 GMT -5
I am itching to get a 3D printer. I wonder if one of those would work for templates? One of my favorite templates I use was custom made by someone that made the drawing and had it laser cut from a sheet of really hard plastic. It is now broke in a few spots and not replaceable. Chuck yeah, if you know how to do Bezier curves, organic shapes are pretty easy. I wrote a bit of code back when ago to squish/squash a basic shape... Some of the basic files still are here if you want to walk into the library and ask them to print one to test out. (easy for them to scale things in independent x/y/z if you wanted to squish more.
Sorry, bad link. I got a 404 error. |
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Post by rockjunquie on Feb 9, 2023 17:04:05 GMT -5
I am itching to get a 3D printer. I wonder if one of those would work for templates? One of my favorite templates I use was custom made by someone that made the drawing and had it laser cut from a sheet of really hard plastic. It is now broke in a few spots and not replaceable. Chuck I just got a 3D printer in December and it has been a lot of fun already. I think it would be an excellent tool to use to make templates. You could make them as thick or thin as you’d like and the thing is incredibly accurate at creating shapes. One of the patterns to calibrate the printer is a simple single layer that prints a sheet that feels like a sheet of paper. With translucent filament, you should be able to print something that you can sort of see through as long as you don’t want it too thick. Cool! The first ones I had were cut from plastic coffee can lids. They weren't clear, though. |
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Post by oregon on Feb 9, 2023 18:36:46 GMT -5
yeah, if you know how to do Bezier curves, organic shapes are pretty easy. I wrote a bit of code back when ago to squish/squash a basic shape... Some of the basic files still are here if you want to walk into the library and ask them to print one to test out. (easy for them to scale things in independent x/y/z if you wanted to squish more.
Sorry, bad link. I got a 404 error. I guess Proboards doesn't like a colon in the URL.... try this bit.ly/3xcMa3o |
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Post by rockjunquie on Feb 9, 2023 18:44:17 GMT -5
Sorry, bad link. I got a 404 error. I guess Proboards doesn't like a colon in the URL.... try this bit.ly/3xcMa3oThat worked. Thanks. And, thank you for posting this.  |
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adrian65
Cave Dweller 
Arch to golden memories and to great friends.
Member since February 2007
Posts: 10,790
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Post by adrian65 on Feb 9, 2023 23:19:38 GMT -5
You could probably find shops which can do laser curs trough plastic sheets, using a paper template or a file with those cab shapes. In the past there were some actions like that here, I sent the file to a member (don't remember whom) and he cut more sets of templates to spread to the members here. Maybe some of them can help you more. There are threads here with those actions, I'm sure about that. If you want to send you the file with my templates, pm me please.
Adrian
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Post by rockjunquie on Feb 10, 2023 9:40:06 GMT -5
You could probably find shops which can do laser curs trough plastic sheets, using a paper template or a file with those cab shapes. In the past there were some actions like that here, I sent the file to a member (don't remember whom) and he cut more sets of templates to spread to the members here. Maybe some of them can help you more. There are threads here with those actions, I'm sure about that. If you want to send you the file with my templates, pm me please. Adrian PM sent. I didn't know you had templates. |
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Post by jasoninsd on Feb 12, 2023 23:24:32 GMT -5
I was in Walmart with my wife on Saturday. I was going to see if the had any mylar sheets. I didn't see any, so I was going to get some self adhesive laminating sheets. My wife saw a thermal laminator and said she'd get that for my birthday coming up...so how could I resist! LOL Spent Saturday evening printing up all my template files...and my wife did the thermal laminating this morning while I was on the slab saw. Now I just have a crap ton of cutting out shapes ahead of me! LOL  |
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Post by rockjunquie on Feb 13, 2023 6:32:54 GMT -5
I was in Walmart with my wife on Saturday. I was going to see if the had any mylar sheets. I didn't see any, so I was going to get some self adhesive laminating sheets. My wife saw a thermal laminator and said she'd get that for my birthday coming up...so how could I resist! LOL Spent Saturday evening printing up all my template files...and my wife did the thermal laminating this morning while I was on the slab saw. Now I just have a crap ton of cutting out shapes ahead of me! LOL Damn! That's a lot of templates!! |
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Post by jasoninsd on Feb 13, 2023 7:15:36 GMT -5
I was in Walmart with my wife on Saturday. I was going to see if the had any mylar sheets. I didn't see any, so I was going to get some self adhesive laminating sheets. My wife saw a thermal laminator and said she'd get that for my birthday coming up...so how could I resist! LOL Spent Saturday evening printing up all my template files...and my wife did the thermal laminating this morning while I was on the slab saw. Now I just have a crap ton of cutting out shapes ahead of me! LOL Damn! That's a lot of templates!! I think it's like 35 pages of templates! LOL - I won't be using all the templates on all the sheets. In fact, some sheets might only have a couple shapes I'm interested in. I just didn't feel like trying to figure out how to copy and paste the ones I wanted together on the same pages! LOL |
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Post by rockjunquie on Feb 13, 2023 17:39:28 GMT -5
Someone on the board was gracious enough to offer to cut some templates with a Cricut type machine on mylar for me. THANK YOU for all of your input.
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